The Stairs

Shot over the course of several years, Hugh Gibson’s profoundly affecting and compassionate documentary examines the lives of habitual drug users in Toronto’s Regent Park.

Intro and Q&A with director Hugh Gibson at the Friday October 7th, 6:45pm screening!

The 6:40pm screening on Wednesday October 12th will be followed by a panel discussion moderated by Toronto Star Columnist Joe Fiorito and feature City councillors Joe Cressy and Gord Perks (both head Toronto’s Drug Strategy), Raffi Balian (South Riverdale CHC Project Coordinator) and film subject Roxanne Smith!

Hugh Gibson's compassionate and profoundly
affecting The Stairs takes us inside
Toronto's Regent Park Community Health
Centre, whose staff of social workers
includes both former and current drug users.
These workers understand all too well what
their clients are going through.

Shot over five years, Gibson's film focuses
on three staff members: the loquacious,
seemingly tireless Marty, who was so
addicted at one point that, after being shot
in a deal that went south, he stopped for a
hit before going to the hospital; Roxanne,
a former sex worker whose tales of life in
the trade are beyond harrowing; and Greg,
a biracial child of the 1960s consumed with
a long-delayed legal case hinging on a police
officer's use of excessive force.

As it draws us closer to Gibson's subjects,
The Stairs challenges prejudices and preconceived
notions. It also underlines how
tentative sobriety and stability can be for
people who have lived in addiction for years.
In one of the film's rawest moments, Marty,
when asked what kind of future he sees for
himself, explains that "When you wake up
and you're at that next day, you're very happy
because it's another day you didn't smoke
crack … I didn't do it yesterday, I'm not gonna
do it today either. That's our happy ending.
Cuz it never ends."

As the film progresses, Gibson subtly
builds a wide-ranging portrait of the conditions
that can nurture addiction, most
notably poverty and homelessness. In
its nuance, social conscience, and moving
affection for its subjects, The Stairs is a
worthy continuation of the tradition set by
the NFB's legendary Unit B.